Dispatches from Sea >>
click on a date in the calendar below
| March 2007 |  Laura Preston, educator, UNH/Salem High School, Salem, NH. |
||||||
| April 2007 | |||||||
April 24, 2007
The work continues for just a few more days. Graduate students are helping pack everything up, (between ongoing meetings to read & discuss scientific papers with their professors), the scientists are making sure that all the pertinent data is where it needs to be stored for reference back at home, and Liz and I continue our quest for knowledge to write the curriculum that will be used in the not so far away future for the FLEXE program. I spent last night and today learning all about fiber optics. I wanted to really understand just how the data gets from the seafloor to our maps.
It is truly an amazing thought that one tiny glass “fiber”, a bit larger than the diameter of a human hair, can transfer the video, images, and data points through it, at the speed of light….literally the data rides on a light wave to our desk top computers! The following series of photos illustrates the path data takes from Jason through Medea to the control van.
 Jason II being launched. |
 Jason’s fiber optic tether. |
 Fiber optic tether and armored fiber optic cable. |
 The data arrives in the control van. |
 The data images come to the watchstanders and we view them in the monitor. |
Instead of trying to uncoil my convoluted thinking at this point for you, I thought it would be a good idea to take you to a great link….
http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/hottopics/fiberoptic.html
 The professors review scientific papers of this area with the graduate students . |
 |
<< previous dispatch next dispatch >>